Looking at the Stars: Status shifts after collective achievements

Abstract

We analyze how collective awards shape status shifts within teams. Integrating the relational and the public recognition perspectives on status formation, we argue that status shifts arise from both internal team composition and external recognition. The presence of a high-status member amplifies audience arousal, leading to a disproportionate attribution of the award’s value. This heightened arousal also strengthens audience memory, resulting in more persistent status gains for all team members. Our analysis is grounded in the film industry and based on a sample of 6,632 actor-film pairs related to the period 2000–2013. Results show that all team members experience a positive status shift after receiving a collective award. However, high-status members experience a higher positive status shift compared to the others. Results highlight that the positive status shifts due to the collective award winning tend to last after some time, in the presence of high-status members in the team.